keeps

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Related to keeps: KEPS

keep

(kēp)

v. kept, keep·ing, keeps

v.tr.

1. To retain possession of: kept the change; must keep your composure.

2. To have as a supply: keep spare parts in case of emergency.

a. To provide (a family, for example) with maintenance and support: "There's little to earn and many to keep" (Charles Kingsley).

b. To support (a mistress or lover) financially.

4. To put customarily; store: Where do you keep your saw?

a. To supply with room and board for a charge: keep boarders.

b. To raise: keep chickens.

6. To maintain for use or service: an urbanite who didn't keep a car.

7. To manage, tend, or have charge of: Keep the shop while I'm away.

8. To preserve (food).

9. To cause to continue in a state, condition, or course of action: tried to keep the patient calm.

10.

a. To maintain records or entries in: keep a yearly diary.

b. To enter (data) in a book: keep financial records.

11.

a. To detain: was kept after school.

b. To restrain: kept the child away from the stove; kept the crowd back with barriers.

c. To prevent or deter: tried to keep the ice from melting.

d. To refrain from divulging: keep a secret.

e. To save; reserve: keep extra money for emergencies.

12. To adhere or conform to; follow: keep late hours.

13. To be faithful to; fulfill: keep one's word.

14. To celebrate; observe: keep the Sabbath.

v.intr.

1. To remain in a state or condition; stay: keep in line; keep quiet; kept well.

2. To continue to do: keep on talking; keep guessing.

3. To remain fresh or unspoiled: The dessert won't keep.

4. To restrain oneself; hold oneself back: I couldn't keep from eavesdropping.

1. Care; charge: The child is in my keep for the day.

2. The means by which one is supported: earn one's keep.

a. The stronghold of a castle.

b. A jail.

Phrasal Verbs:

keep at

To persevere in work or an action.

keep down

1. To prevent from growing, accomplishing, or succeeding: keep the revolutionaries down.

2. To hold under control or at a reduced level: Keep your voice down.

3. To refrain from vomiting: Although seasick, I managed to keep my food down.

keep off

To stay away from.

keep to

To adhere to: keep to the original purpose.

keep up

1. To maintain in good condition: kept up the property.

2. To persevere in; carry on: We asked her to stop talking, but she kept it up. To preserve or sustain: kept up the appearance of friendship.

3. To continue at the same level or pace: The snow kept up all day.

4. To continue to pay off (a financial obligation).

5. To match one's competitors, colleagues, or neighbors in success or lifestyle: couldn't keep up with his friends who went into business.

6. To remain adequately informed: loved to keep up on the gossip.

Idioms:

for keeps

1. For an indefinitely long period: gave the ring to me for keeps.

2. Seriously and permanently: We're separating for keeps.

keep an eye on

1. To watch over attentively; mind.

2. To watch closely or carefully: keep your eye on the ball.

keep an eye out

To be watchful.

keep a stiff upper lip

To be courageous or stoic in the face of adversity.

keep company

1. To carry on a courtship: a couple who kept company but never married.

2. To socialize or associate: keeps company with some tough thugs.

keep (one's) chin up

To be stalwart, courageous, or optimistic in the face of difficulty.

keep (one's) eyes open/peeled

To be on the lookout.

keep (one's) nose clean Informal

To stay out of trouble.

keep pace

To stay even with others, as in a contest.

keep (someone) company

To accompany or remain with.

keep the wolf from the door

To avoid the privation and suffering resulting from a lack of money: Both spouses had to work in order to keep the wolf from the door.

keep time

1. To indicate the correct time.

2. Music To maintain the tempo or rhythm.

keep to (oneself)

1. To shun the company of others: She kept to herself all morning.

2. To refrain from divulging: He kept the news to himself.

[Middle English kepen, from Old English cēpan, to observe, seize.]

Synonyms: keep , retain , withhold , reserve
These verbs mean to have and maintain in one's possession or control. Keep is the most general: We received a few offers but decided to keep the house. Retain means to continue to hold, especially in the face of possible loss: Though unhappy, he retained his sense of humor. Withhold implies reluctance or refusal to give, grant, or allow: The tenant withheld his rent until the owner fixed the boiler. To reserve is to hold back for the future or for a special purpose: The farmer reserved two acres for an orchard. See Also Synonyms at observe.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

keeps

(kiːps)

for ever; permanentlyto do something seriously and without showing any mercy

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Translations

keeps

[ˈkiːps] n
for keeps → pour de bon, pour toujours

keeps

[kiːps] n for keeps (fam) → per sempre

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

"No--nothing, except he seems so scary, and keeps his doors locked night and day both, and when you knock he won't let you in till he opens the door a crack and sees who it is."

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Meg is a great comfort to me and lets me have jelly every night at tea its so good for me Jo says because it keeps me sweet tempered.

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But the Ho^tel de Ville's old excellent reputation still keeps its dreary rooms crowded with travelers who would be elsewhere if they had only some wise friend to warn them.

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Couldn't we settle down and live in Russian Peter's house, Yulka asked, and couldn't I go to town and buy things for us to keep house with?

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In this way you have enemies in all those whom you have injured in seizing that principality, and you are not able to keep those friends who put you there because of your not being able to satisfy them in the way they expected, and you cannot take strong measures against them, feeling bound to them.

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My marriage," he said savagely, "isn't going to be a sight to keep you here." She made no answer, and he went on: "What's the use?

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When the waves began to tumble and toss and to grow bigger and bigger the ship rolled up and down, and tipped sidewise--first one way and then the other--and was jostled around so roughly that even the sailor-men had to hold fast to the ropes and railings to keep themselves from being swept away by the wind or pitched headlong into the sea.

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I thought I might as well keep them to myself as have them swallowed up alive too; so I kept them in a box, looking over them when I felt in the humour.

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"There are so many I would like to make," said Cecily, "that I'm afraid it wouldn't be any use trying to keep them all."

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For four hours nothing happened, and not a word said, except that now and then she said, 'Keep it up, Boy, keep it up, sweetheart; we'll save him!' I kept it up.

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And to do this, just as it was necessary to cook dinner, it was necessary to keep the mechanism of agriculture at Pokrovskoe going so as to yield an income.

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All that Magdalen could do in her own defense was to keep the instinctive female suspicion of her confined within those purely negative limits which it had occupied from the first, and this she accomplished.